If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, you can win $1,000 or more by locating and helping to conserve endangered species. [More]
Amid all the blather about technical problems with the Google Nexus One superphone, there’s one nugget of information that bodes well for its future: It’s a great-sounding cellphone. Behind that superior sound is the Audience A1026 voice processor, picking up sound from two mics and reducing noise in a way similar to the best noise-canceling headphones.
Finally, someone starts paying attention to the horrible sound quality of all cellphones. But making the handset sound better is just the beginning of solving this problem. As lame cellphone providers continue to attempt to figuratively squeeze a basketball through a garden hose, highly compressed audio can’t get much worse.
Let’s hope Google’s and HTC’s audio-improving innovation will lead the industry into high fidelity cellphone sound in the near future.
Via Gizmodo
As hinted at for the last few months, Toyota has today debuted a smaller sibling to the Prius at the Detroit Auto Show. According to a statement from Toyota, the FT-CH (CH=compact hybrid) is “designed to target a lower price point than the Prius, thus appealing to a younger, less-affluent buyer demographic.”
Translation: “This car is for you, you poor recent college graduate… who, due to the econopocalypse, settled for a job making half of what you expected to… who would buy a Prius if your parents weren’t driving one and would lend you $23K.” Oh come on, you know you want one. The FT-CH is… dare I say it… cool.
Hell, I want one… but mostly because I’m a cheap skate. Actually, I’m still positive my next car will be a plug-in, but even so, I’m having just a little bit of FT-CH lust. I might honestly be having way more FT-CH lust if the simple act of even writing that horrendous name wasn’t enough to put ice in my loins.
The unbridled success of wireless networks for Internet access and beyond has brought mobile telecommunications to remote areas of Africa , safety to many a driver stranded roadside, and worldwide mobility to professionals who were once deskbound. Yet all of this has come at a steep environmental cost: The global network and technology required to run it produce 250 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, roughly the same as is produced yearly by 50 million automobiles (20 percent of all the autos in the U.S.), according to Green Touch , a new international consortium of businesses, government agencies and academics formed to address this problem. [More]
The country’s in a deep freeze. That’s why we’re eyeing these $200 clodhoppers, which happen to have a unique capability nestled underneath. They’re mild-mannered Clark Kent-style boots when you’re indoors, but when it’s time to walk on ice, spin around those red devices on the bottom and they transform into uniquely capable winter gear.
These tricky kicks are each packing 16 stainless steel teeth that will bite their way through ice and snow, keeping you and your butt intact for one more frigid season. And those of you with Popsicle toes will be happy to hear that these clunky boots are wool-lined, in an attempt to keep your feet warm even when the thermometer plummets to below zero. Good luck with that — we’d rather have electric heat in there.
Via CrunchGear
Smart dudes at Nanosys are figuring out a way to make the colors of LED lights more vivid, while using the same amount of energy as current LEDs. How are they accomplishing this feat? Why, they’re using nanotechnology, of course.
They slather this nano goop over blue LED lights, because that color is the most energy-efficient. This strange semiconductor material changes the colors of those LEDs, resulting in a rainbow of hues that look a whole lot brighter.
Best of all, this nanotech can make the color rendering index (CRI) of warm white light look a lot more appealing. Bravo. Expect to see this tech on laptop displays, HDTV screens, and lighting fixtures by the end of this year.
Via Treehugger
Rack another one up for the Blue Oval.
After ending 2009 on a high note, and with their hybrid sales up 147% from the year before, the Blue Oval started 2010 off with a bang. Today, at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show, the Ford Fusion Hybrid was gifted with the Car of the Year award, and the Transit Connect, Ford’s new compact transport van walked away with Truck of the Year honors.
Ford beat out Chevy, Volkswagen, and Subaru to take home the awards. And why not? This is the strongest lineup Ford has had since the original Taurus debuted, and it only gets better from here.
Have you always dreamed of being Luke Skywalker? Would you settle for being Wedge? Well, in any case, the RCX4 Star Stryker Helicopter is a remote-controlled X-Wing that you can use to fulfill all of your space-battle dreams.
Since it’s got four helicopter propellers inside, it’s able to hover in place as well as fly in all directions. Sure, you can’t actually fly inside it, but come on. That’s just unrealistic.
DigitTronics via Geeky Gadgets
At a pre-Detroit Auto Show industry dinner last night, GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz announced that GM has definitely green-lighted the virally popular Cadillac Converj EREV. The car, which is based on Volt technology, made its debut as a concept car at last year’s Detroit Auto Show.
It’s press day at the Detroit Auto Show, and Toyota just rolled out a compact hybrid called the FT-CH. This two-door four-seater is a concept car so far, but Toyota is hinting this one might actually make it to showrooms. It’ll fill a niche — designed to be considerably cheaper and smaller than the established Toyota Prius.
In the gallery, ogle those weird LED headlights, looking more like vents for light to peek through than conventional auto illumination. Toyota says the FT-CH will be a hybrid vehicle, but we’re hoping it’ll be more of the plug-in hybrid or electric car persuasion.
Via Autoblog
This little tutorial shows you how to make some funky boots out of an
old sweater, a cheap pair of flats, and some hot glue. Looks pretty
quick and easy if you have a handy sweater to sacrifice to the cause.
Link via CRAFT
By: fungus amungus
Looking for some extra screen space on your laptop? The Cinq is a 10-inch USB monitor that can hang right on the side of your screen, giving you all sorts of extra room to work with.
In addition to the screen, it’s got an SD card reader, which is a nice touch. You’ll be able to buy one when it’s released in the third quarter of this year for $249.
Neighborhood Fruit has just released an app for the iPhone called Find
Fruit. With it you can find free fruit in your area when it’s in season.
If you want to start foraging for free food, this is a great way to get
started. Link
By: fungus amungus
Chumby, the cute, almost huggable Internet-connected widget player, seems to be making friends across the tech industry. First we saw the $199 Sony Dash, with the ability to play all the Chumby widgets built in. Now here’s the Chumby Sunfury tablet computer platform, perhaps the basis for Sony Dash, and maybe on its way inside numerous gadgets far and wide.
Its specs resemble those of the Sony Dash (available this April), with a 7-inch touchscreen, 800×480 resolution, microSD card compatibility and Wi-Fi/3G connectivity. But this platform takes to the next level, with optional video camera inputs, a 1.2 GHz version, and your choice of 128 or 256MB of RAM. Jeez, this is getting beyond mere Chumbytude and into tablet territory.
When will the Sunfury make it to market? It’s unclear thus far, but this might be a reference platform for lots of gadgets with similar sized touchscreens and Chumby inside. We can only hope.
Via Technabob
Traffic sucks. It is a waste of time and of fuel. But even though we have congestion problems of our own in America, it is nothing like the Netherlands, where an estimated 70 million hours a year are wasted by the populace stuck in traffic. The problem is so bad that in 2012 a new law goes in effect in the Netherlands that will tax drivers based on how many kilometers they drive. As Europe’s most densely populated and congested country, Dutch politicians hope a hefty tax levied against most drivers will encourage people to use public transportation and lessen their legendary congestion problems.
Here is the caveat that caught my eye though. Dutch officials estimate that 6 out of 10 motorists will end up paying less, because the new tax will replace registration and the 25% (!!!!!!!!!) sales tax on new cars. So why would people drive less, if it costs less?
The White Noise Machine, designed by Japanese designer Yuri Suzuki, takes in the ambient noise around it, mixes it all up and then spits it back out as white noise. Why? I’m not sure, but it sure looks pretty neat, doesn’t it?
DesignBoom via Gizmodo
For what seems like forever, everyone carried around a Swiss Army knife — you never knew when you might need a small knife or itsy-bitsy pair of scissors. However, post-9/11, no one can carry theirs around when they travel. Sales must have been plummeting as more and more Swiss Army knifes were confiscated at airports and not replaced.
Always thinking, Victorinox, the company behind the Swiss Army brand has been working on ways to get back into everyone’s pocket. They have mixed USB flash drives with their classic designs, in-flight versions without blades, and now they’re really thinking outside the box.
The new Victorinox Presentation Master features a large (up to 32 GB) USB flash drive with secure data encryption, and fingerprint authentication, all in the familiar Swiss Army Knife. Yup – you swipe your finger across the scanner for access to the drive – how very Ethan Hunt. A flight-friendly version without blades is available. The Presentation master features a Bluetooth remote control for notebook or PC applications and a laser pointer. The company believes so strongly in their product security that they offered hackers $100,000 if they could crack the code. So far, the product is still secure. Pricing will be available in March.
I like this product, but if you get the one with the familiar knifes, be prepared to turn it over next time you fly. That would really suck if your meeting presentation was left in the hands of TSA. Of course, if you really get stuck and forgot about the knives, just remove the USB from the main body and go on your merry way.
In an unusual exercise of its authority under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced on December 30 the establishment of a "chemicals of concern" list and action plans that could prompt restrictions on four types of synthetic chemicals used widely in manufacturing and consumer products, including phthalates used to make flexible plastics, often for toys, household products and medical equipment. [More]
Our heads are still spinning from all the gorgeous laptops and netbooks we saw at CES 2010 last week. But this Sony Vaio Z Series Signature Collection was the prettiest: super-thin, with a solid state drive and a 13-inch screen that was among the sharpest and brightest we’ve seen. And looky there — it has an LED-backlit keyboard.
Sure, it’ll be expensive, starting at $1900, but this class of notebook never comes cheap. This Vaio Z reminds us of that attractive 13-inch HP Envy we reviewed a few weeks ago, but Sony’s sexy video put us over the edge. Too bad you can’t even pre-order one yet.
Via Sony Style
Gorgeous Immy was rehomed privately via an entry on the Oldies Club website. She is one of our most senior Oldies at 18 years old and she’s settled very happily into her new home proving that it’s never to late for a dog to start a new life. Her new owners adore her and she’s [...]
Subscribe via RSS Feed stay updated with blog articles
